Major fears of election fraud have hit New York City - but probably not the political race you had in mind.
The Big Apple's dog mayor race - an honorary title given out every two years - has been engulfed in scandal this year after a crypto community swayed voters into choosing a winner.
Approximately 16 canines, hand-selected by their social media, went head-to-head for the honorary title that was to be decided on November 11.
The race was down to Enzo the Shih Tzu and Bertram the Pomeranian as of Wednesday until Enzo's owner pulled him out, claiming interference.
Olivia Caputo posted on Instagram that the 'gigantic bomb of votes hit Twitter' Wednesday evening, saying a crypto group had infiltrated the Dog Mayor platform to to pump their valueless sh**coin.'
'They are offering payment/giveaways to sway people to vote for Bert, which is illegal per FTC guidelines,' Caputo continued.
The crypto group also posted 'highly incendiary comments' about Enzo on the NYC Dog Mayor platform, she wrote.
'We have NEVER received the kind of negative comments and messages that we have received while participating in this contest,' she stated.
New York City began the dog mayor elections shortly after Littleton, Colorado began its tradition in 2021.
The East Coast city introduced the 2024 candidates in July using a March Madness-style bracket and were chosen for certain talents ranging from hugging, singing, fashion and giving high fives.
The election takes place via Dog Mayor NYC's Instagram stories, Facebook group and X account every Wednesday until it's down to the last two political pooches, who faced off this week and ended with Enzo dropping out.
Caputo speculated that the group was executing a 'pump and dump' scheme, which is a market manipulation tactic in which the token is artificially inflated to attract participants, and then sold off, causing the price to crash, according to Coinbase.
'If they're really not invested in the actual project here at all, it's all about their crypto coin and something about that is really icky to me, I don't want to be associated with all with it at all,' Caputo said.
Not only did she claim interference, but she discovered negative comments about Enzo in a public Telegraph forum on Sunday.
Caputo brought the issues to the attention of the Dog Mayor founder Stephen Calabria, who said they could not disqualify Bertram because of the crypto group's actions.
But she told amNewYork that Calabria did nothing to protect her or Enzo from the hate comments.
When Enzo's followers tried to draw attention to the issue, they were blocked by the Dog Mayor account, Caputo said.
The language in there that they use talking about Enzo and me is very, very disturbing, to say the least. It seemed threatening, very negative, very hateful,' Caputo said.
'It's ironic honestly because Stephen echoes all the time how this is supposed to be fun and lighthearted but he's let it to be anything but that. He hasn't protected that in any way, shape or form,' she said.
Following Enzo's exit from the race, the Dog Mayor Instagram account announced that Simon the Basset-Cattle Dog would take his place in the final face-off against Bertram, and stated that the account has no financial stake in the race.
'We're a neutral organization and don't support individual candidates over others, nor do we support any ancillary financial interests associated with the individual candidates,' the statement read.
'We have literally zero financial interest in this at all, outside of trying to bring joy to the world and getting more puppies adopted.'
'We don't condone negativity directed towards anyone, canine or human, and do not support anyone trying to buy or pay for votes.'
Bertram the Pomeranian's Instagram page posted a statement on their story to say that they have nothing to do with the crypto group or hate comments toward Enzo.
